Three civil activists named in Ghandy chargesheet

Three civil rights activists were named as naxal sympathisers in a chargesheet filed by Delhi Police against top Maoist leader Kobad Ghandy, prompting a sharp reaction from the organisations they belong to.

Police had on Friday filed a chargesheet running into over 800 pages against Ghandy, a Polit Bureau member of the banned CPI (Maoist) arrested in September last year from Delhi, in which the names of civil rights activists and some organisations appeared.

People's Union of Democratic Rights (PUDR), People's Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) and Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) are the organisations which were mentioned in the chargesheet accusing them of helping Maoists.

The names of former PUDR Secretary Gautam Naulakha, Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners spokesperson Rona Wilson and Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF) Deputy Secretary GN Saibaba are also in the chargesheet for meeting Ghandy ahead and after his arrest in Delhi.

The chargesheet further said that Maoists are active among students and have established front organisations other than forming a trade union which is active in Okhla Industrial Area.

Naulakha, Wilson and Saibaba termed their being named in the chargesheet as "laughable, utter rubbish, ridiculous" and an attempt to "muzzle dissident voices in a democracy".